Pain management gets shot in arm in NSW

The New South Wales Government has unveiled a new strategy to overhaul pain management services, which focuses on getting people who suffer from chronic pain into treatment earlier.

The $26-million strategy aims to improve access to treatment programs, with funding for five new pain management services in regional centres.

There will also be an early intervention trial for injured workers that will be run at Sydney's Concord Hospital, and funding for research into new pain management techniques and training of specialists.

Professor Michael Cousins, from the Pain Management Research Institute at the University of Sydney, says early intervention can literally save lives.

"It's when you've seen patients who we sadly have seen too late, their family's broken up, sometimes one of them's committed suicide," he said.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner says the strategy delivers on one of her key election commitments.

"I believe this is groundbreaking, because it really is the first time that I'm aware of anyway that there has been such a coordinated focus on pain management," she said.

"It recognises this as an important chronic condition that has just been ignored."